The Minnesota State Fair’s on-site post office had a new look in 2013 (right), ditching the U.S. Postal Service logo present a year earlier – and stoking concerns about privatization of the postal service.
Our Minnesota State Fair prides itself in offering new things to be found on the fairgrounds each year. But this year, I found one of the State Fair’s new offerings distressing – and insulting – to me.
I have regularly attended our “Great Minnesota Get-Together” since childhood, and for as long as I can remember the U.S. Postal Service has maintained an on-site post office, providing fairgoers with complete mailing services as well as offering special souvenir cancellations. It also provided St. Paul postal workers with choice temporary assignments.
Those days appear to be over. This year the eagle on the decades-old USPS mailbox was covered over with the corporate competitor UPS logo.
Postal management’s plan to privatize the people’s post office marches on. From the fair to our neighborhoods – one distribution center, one post office, one union job and one mailbox at a time.
You can help prevent further erosion, preserve a people’s post office and protect union jobs by asking your congressional representatives to support The Postal Service Protection Act (S.316 in the Senate and H.R. 630 in the House).
– Mike Mazurkiewicz
The writer is a retired St Paul postal clerk and former editor of the newsletter for members of Local 65 of the American Postal Workers Union, “The Postmark.”
Union Advocate 